A novel by one of America’s best authors

John Irving published his first novel in 1968. He has written numerous best-sellers since then, including one of the best novels ever written, “A Prayer for Owen Meany.”

His twelfth novel, “Last Night in Twisted River,” has the emotional strengths of “The World According to Garp” and “Hotel New Hampshire.”

Dominic Baciagalupo, the cook for a logging camp in Twisted River, N.H., and his son, Daniel, 12, and their close friend, Ketchum, are the main characters. Daniel mistakes Jane, the local constable’s girlfriend, for a bear and kills her. That starts their life on the run.

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As Dominic and Daniel change their names and move from place to place, they keep in contact with Ketchum. As years go by, the constable, a violent man, is still looking for them. Daniel becomes a famous author and the father of a son.

This is expertly plotted; the characters are all drawn with great skill and the dialogue is realistic. The back story of Baciagalupo, his wife and Ketchum is surprising. One unusual aspect of the story is that Irving refers to someone as deceased, then goes back to tell the story of how that character died. Irving’s novels are brilliant and many are tragicomic. He is one of America’s most accomplished story-tellers.

“The Lacuna” by Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, 528 pages, $26.99.

Barbara Kingsolver’s first novel in nine years begins in Mexico in 1929. Harrison William Shepherd’s Mexican-born mother deserts his father and takes the 11-year-old Harrison back to Mexico to live with her rich lover.

Harrison discovers a lacuna, an underwater cave that leads to a secret pool. Harrison is then sent to an American military academy. He is kicked out, then returns to Mexico in the household of Diego Rivera; his wife, Frida Kahlo; and their house guest, Leon Trotsky. Harrison later returns to America.

The novel is narrated in the form of letters, diary entries and newspaper clippings. Harrison’s character never evolves. This becomes a novel of the postwar anti-Communist witch-hunt, but doesn’t do that time of history justice.